BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – The current migrant crisis encompasses a total of 12 million people, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced on Tuesday.
"We are discussing 40,000, we are discussing 120,000. If you add the refugees that are hosted in the neighboring countries of Syria and the ones that are internally displaced in Syria, I think we get close to 12 million," Mogherini stressed.
She criticized EU member states for their lack of contributions toward a $46-million trust fund to support Syria in an effort to address the crisis at its root, citing Germany and Italy as the only contributors to date.
European interior ministers failed to agree on the relocation of 120,000 refugees throughout the bloc’s 28 members on an equitable basis at an extraordinary meeting late on Monday.
The ministers agreed to redistribute the 40,000 refugees currently in Greece and Italy, as proposed by Brussels under the first emergency package in May. A final decision is now expected at another justice and home affairs council meeting on October 8 in Luxembourg.
Unveiling the second emergency package last Wednesday, Juncker said nearly half a million migrants and asylum seekers were estimated to have entered Europe since the beginning of the year in what is termed the greatest refugee crisis since World War II.
